software

AT&T’s Samsung Galaxy S4 received Android Lollipop earlier this month, but now it looks like it’s Verizon’s turn. As you surely already know, the update brings Material Design, changes to Android’s notifications system, and other improvements:

Verizon Wireless is pleased to announce an operating system update to Android 5.0 Lollipop. This version brings Android beyond smartphones and tablets, allowing access to apps and Android services on other connected screens like TV’s, cars and wearables. The new material design offers complex animations, 3-D views and improved runtime.

Lollipop is still making its way around (more than 5 months after its first release), and now the time has come for those who have been waiting for the update to hit their Galaxy S4 on Verizon. You can expect the update to appear OTA at some point over the coming days.

Check out Verizon’s release PDF for more information.

Android Lollipop finally rolling out to Sprint LG G2, T-Mobile Galaxy Note 4

Stephen Hall Apr 27 2015 - 7:03 am PT

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It seems as if almost every day another Android device gets updated to Lollipop, and today is no exception. Both the LG G2 from Sprint and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 from T-Mobile should start receiving the Material Design-filled goodness starting today.
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YouTube losing support on older devices as Google begins sunsetting Data API v2

Stephen Hall Apr 20 2015 - 1:40 pm PT

Google announced today that it is beginning the retirement process of YouTube’s Data API v2, and that means that some older devices, including older Apple and Google TV set-top boxes, will no longer be able to access the video streaming site. The change is also going to affect users of older gaming consoles and iOS devices as the deprecated built-in YouTube apps will be unable to access the service…
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Huge Android Wear update brings wrist gestures, WiFi support, always-on apps, more (Updated)

Stephen Hall Apr 20 2015 - 7:34 am PT

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wristgesture_500

Update: Various reports have confirmed that certain Android Wear devices, including the LG G Watch and G Watch R as well as the Asus ZenWatch, will not be getting WiFi support.

Android Wear is getting a pretty big update. Over at the official Android blog, Google this morning showed off the latest version of its mobile OS, packing several useful new features including wrist gestures for flicking through cards hands-free, WiFi support to free your watch from needing to be directly connected to your phone, support for quickly drawing emoji replies to messages, always-on screen support in apps, and a lot more…
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Microsoft’s apps are coming to Cyanogen OS thanks to new partnership (Updated)

Stephen Hall Apr 16 2015 - 8:05 am PT

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cyanogen

In what may be taken as some dreadful news to long-time fans of Cyanogen’s work in the custom Android-based ROM space, the group has today announced a partnership with Microsoft to pre-install many of the Redmond company’s consumer-facing apps on its mobile OS…
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Android Lollipop rolling out to AT&T’s Samsung Galaxy Alpha, Galaxy S5 Active

Stephen Hall Apr 15 2015 - 10:43 am PT

galaxy-alpha

Update: AT&T has also announced that the Galaxy S5 Active is now receiving Android 5.0 Lollipop. The update includes a variety of changes and improvements, which can be viewed on AT&T’s website now.

We told you earlier today about another device from AT&T that’s getting Lollipop, and now it seems like the Samsung Galaxy Alpha is getting the overhaul as well. As AT&T has announced on their support site, the firmware update is rolling out now over-the-air, and you’ll need a WiFi connection to download the 1 GB file.

Specifically, this is Android Lollipop version 5.0.2, the release that came just before the most-recent 5.1 version. As you probably already know, Android Lollipop comes packed with Material Design, new and improved notifications, multiple device user accounts, and more features.

AT&T’s LG G2 is now getting Android Lollipop

Stephen Hall Apr 15 2015 - 7:40 am PT

The LG G2 is one of the most trusty Android phones to have ever launched. Even to this day, it’s regarded as still one of the better buys if you’re looking for an Android phone unlocked under $200. Its tried-and-true horsepower is again being proven today, as the AT&T variant of the device is now receiving the latest version of Android—specifically 5.0.1 Lollipop.

On top of adding Lollipop, AT&T says that the update is also removing a couple things—namely the “Browser Bar and Famigo,” and “AT&T Code Scanner and Beats Music.” Keep your eye on your handset over the next couple of days to catch the new software, and as usual, you’ll need to be connected to WiFi to download the over-the-air update.

Android Lollipop for AT&T’s Galaxy Note Edge, Galaxy S5 to begin rolling out today

Stephen Hall Apr 8 2015 - 9:50 am PT

Samsung's Galaxy Note Edge

Lollipop updates continue to roll in, and today it seems—based on tweets from the company’s “ATTCares” Twitter profile—that AT&T is starting to roll out the latest version of Google’s mobile OS to the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge and the Galaxy S5.

It’s not clear exactly how much this is going to help, but Google updated its Android distribution data this morning to show that Lollipop has just barely passed 5% adoption. KitKat, meanwhile, is still seeing increases as Ice Cream Sandwich and Jellybean lost ground.

@TheCheshireCody The Note Edge update will start today, thank you for your patience. ^ManuelE

— AT&T Help (@ATTHelp) April 8, 2015

@JeRrYFaR Hi Dave. The update for the Samsung S5 will be released on 4/8/2015. Thank you for your patience. Please DM any questions. ^DonW.

— AT&T Help (@ATTHelp) April 8, 2015

Android 5.1 lands on LG G Pad Google Play Edition as 5.0.2 hits AT&T HTC One M8 (Update: Galaxy S4, too)

Stephen Hall Apr 7 2015 - 9:49 am PT

lollipop-1024-e9e448fa2eed0562844a97f62dfdd349

Update: It looks like Android 5.0 is rolling out to the AT&T Galaxy S4 as well.

The rollout of Android Lollipop (and, now, 5.1 as well) has just been this consistently nagging leaky faucet, and today comes with the introduction of more software updates on even more handsets. As we told you yesterday, AT&T’s HTC One M8 should finally be receiving the Material-laden software starting today. But on top of that, today also marks the day that LG’s G Pad 8.3 Google Play Edition will begin receiving Android 5.1…
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Amazon Fire TV gets expandable USB storage, support for Bluetooth headphones, more in coming update

Stephen Hall Mar 24 2015 - 6:59 am PT

amazon firetv hero

Amazon has today announced that a bunch of new features are heading to the company’s Fire TV media streaming device. Coming as an over-the-air update in “the coming weeks,” the new software features expandable USB storage, the ability to connect to WiFi connections that require web authentication, private listening on Fire TV, a new hidden PIN entry screen, the ability to search Prime Playlists, new shortcuts, and more.

Some of these features are coming to the company’s more compact Fire TV Stick device in a couple of weeks, too. While expandable USB storage and private listening seem to be only coming to the standard Fire TV due to hardware restraints, the new WiFi features, Prime Playlists, hidden PIN entry screen, and shortcuts seem to be coming to the Chromecast-competitor as well.

Additionally, Amazon has also announced today that the Fire TV Stick is coming to a couple new European countries—UK and Germany— on April 15th.

SEATTLE—March 24, 2015—(NASDAQ: AMZN)—Amazon today announced new features are coming to the best-selling Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. These features will be delivered as part of a free, over-the-air software update in the coming weeks. Amazon also announced today that Fire TV Stick is now available in the UK and Germany, joining the #1-selling streaming media box, Amazon Fire TV.

“Customer response to Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick has been overwhelming—we’ve been working hard to build more of both as quickly as possible, and we’re excited to be adding new features we think customers will love,” said Peter Larsen, Vice President, Amazon Devices. “In the UK and Germany, Fire TV is already the best-selling streaming media box on Amazon, and we’re thrilled to be bringing our fastest-selling Amazon device ever—Fire TV Stick—to the UK and Germany. We think millions of customers in the UK and Germany are going to love this product.”

New features coming as part of the free, over-the-air software update include:

- Expandable USB storage on Amazon Fire TV—You can now use a connected USB mass storage device to expand your Fire TV storage for downloaded apps and games—this enables you to have more games downloaded for easy access.

- Connect to your hotel or dorm room Wi-Fi with captive portal support out of the box—Take your favorite movies, TV shows, games, and more with you away from home—Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick are the first streaming media devices to enable you to connect to Wi-Fi that requires web authentication—this includes Wi-Fi at most major hotels, as well as some universities.

- Private listening on Fire TV—Enjoy favorite movies and TV shows after the kids go to sleep, without worrying about waking them up. Support for wireless Bluetooth headphones to Fire TV lets you listen to your movie, TV show, or music without bothering others in your household.

- Browse and search Prime Playlists—Prime members can now take advantage of hand-crafted Prime Music playlists directly from Fire TV and Fire TV Stick—there are hundreds of expertly curated Prime Playlists to choose from based on your mood, activity or even artist or decade of choice.

- Hidden PIN entry—With the new PIN entry screen that hides the numbers selected, you can now make sure your kids (or freeloading friends) can’t see your device PIN as you enter it on-screen to confirm a purchase on Fire TV or Fire TV Stick.

- New shortcuts—Quickly put your Fire TV or Fire TV Stick to sleep or enable display mirroring by pressing and holding the Home button on your remote.

Fire TV and Fire TV Stick are available for purchase at www.amazon.com/firetv and www.amazon.com/firetvstick. Fire TV Stick is available to order starting today in the UK and Germany—it will start shipping on April 15. Learn more at www.amazon.co.uk/firetvstick and www.amazon.de/firetvstick.

Android 5.1 Lollipop OTA files start showing up for Nexus devices, here’s how to install them

Stephen Hall Mar 12 2015 - 6:45 am PT

Lollipop Forest

Google recently started publishing Nexus factory images for Android 5.1, but now download links for the over-the-air update are hitting the Internet. It likely won’t be long before your Nexus device has the update up and running (5.1 for the Sprint Nexus 6 started rolling out yesterday, for example), but if you just can’t wait to get your hands on those performance improvements, we’ve got you covered…

Android Wear update expected to bring easier access to apps, WiFi support, more

Stephen Hall Mar 10 2015 - 7:22 am PT

Android-Wear-01

Android Wear is about to receive a very notable software update, and sources who are reportedly familiar with the smartwatch operating system’s roadmap (via The Verge) say that that it’s going to include support for WiFi among several other new features.

It looks like Google might be moving Android Wear to be more app-centric…

VLC pushes new Android & Android TV apps as part of massive cross-platform release

Stephen Hall Feb 27 2015 - 8:09 am PT

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VideoLAN - Official page for VLC media player, the Open Source video framework! 2015-02-27 09-32-14

VideoLAN has today launched several updates to VLC across its apps on iOS, Android, OS X, and every other platform where the app is available, marking the first time that the company has pushed such a massive coordinated release. The new versions (with the main app numbered 2.2.0), include several features across the various platforms, and VLC says it took more than a year of volunteer work to put them together…

OnePlus releases CyanogenMod 11S 05Q update w/ SwiftKey and MaxxAudio included

Stephen Hall Feb 9 2015 - 8:14 am PT

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OnePlus told us in December that the One would be getting MaxxAudio—which will supposedly improve sound performance—in a future update, and that update to the phone’s software has finally arrived. But today’s update also packs a plethora of other features that users of the One will greatly appreciate, and as the company told us would be happening, the update includes the addition of SwiftKey as a default keyboard as well.

Android Lollipop rolling out to Samsung Galaxy S5 on Verizon

Stephen Hall Feb 2 2015 - 10:34 am PT

Fingerprint Scanner Galaxy S5

Verizon has always been one of the slower carriers to update their devices to the latest and greatest firmware, but today it seems that the company is breaking that tradition. The Android 5.0 Lollipop update for the Samsung Galaxy S5 started rolling out in some small international countries in December, but this is the first we’ve heard of an American carrier pushing the update.

Verizon Wireless is pleased to announce an operating system update to Android 5.0 Lollipop. This version brings Android beyond smartphones and tablets, allowing access to apps and Android services on other connected screens like TV’s, cars and wearables. The new material design offers complex animations, 3-D views and improved runtime.

You can find the announcement PDF for the update on Verizon’s website. In-mid-January, it was reported that Samsung was rolling out the update to the Galaxy S5 in the United Kingdom, following its tiered rollout in Poland, Spain, Russia, and Malaysia. This update, notably, is Android 5.0, not Google’s latest official build, which is 5.0.2.

(via Android Police)

Amazon pushes a big update to its Fire Phone, but no one really cares

Stephen Hall Dec 17 2014 - 3:19 pm PT

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firephone

Amazon’s Fire Phone, announced in June, was a flop to say the least. Offering hardly anything that wasn’t already on the market, the device launched at a price of $199 on contract (and AT&T-only, to boot), but very soon became basically free (and $199 unlocked) after sales figures turned out to be absolutely depressing. But even with the device’s failures, Amazon is today pushing a relatively substantial software update to its flopped attempt at entering the smartphone market…

Upcoming 2.3 Pebble update brings actionable Android Wear notifications and more

Stephen Hall Dec 16 2014 - 10:22 am PT

2014-12-16 12_18_06-Pebble – Lights, Smartwatch, Action_ Android Wear notifications come to Pebble (

Pebble users have been left in the dust this year as Android Wear has taken hold over the smartwatch market–and offered some functionality that Pebble and other companies haven’t yet implemented. Today, Pebble has announced that they’re taking a step toward bringing their smartwatch offerings up to par with Wear, showing off a new upcoming software update that’s going to add actionable notifications and slew of other great features.

PSA: All Moto 360 owners should have Android Wear 5.0.1 before end of day

Stephen Hall Dec 15 2014 - 9:24 am PT

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moto360ad

Last week Google started pushing the latest build of Android Wear, version 5.0.1, to a wide variety of devices. Of those that started to see the update on the 10th of December was Motorola’s Moto 360 smartwatch, but the rollout of the update has been slow and incremental. According to the rollout schedule, only 5% of devices received the update on the day it was first released.

Looking at that same post on the Motorola forum, however, we know that all 100% of Moto 360 devices should have received the update by the end of the day today, December 15th. So if you’re still waiting on the update (build LWX48P) to hit your watch, keep hitting reloading that update page. Sadly, Motorola says that users don’t have any way of manually updating their devices outside the release schedule.

Rollout Schedule
Users will not be able to force an upgrade out of turn

12/10: 5%
12/11: 25%
12/13: 50%
12/15: 100%

Android Lollipop for LG G3 begins rolling out in Europe

9to5 Staff Dec 15 2014 - 8:47 am PT

LG G3 Android Lollipop

LG is continuing its rollout of Android Lollipop this week, after seeding the update in Poland and South Korea over the past few months. Android Lollipop should be rolling out for the flagship LG G3 as of this past December 12 in Austria, Baltics, Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom.
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Android Lollipop for Google Play Edition HTC One (M8) and (M7) delayed until further notice

9to5 Staff Nov 21 2014 - 3:20 pm PT

HTC One M8 GPE

If there is one area where iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users can exercise their bragging rights, it is with the timely and consistent software updates received from Apple. Google’s rollout of Android Lollipop has been far less predictable, with only a portion of Nexus devices having received the update and owners of devices from other manufacturers like Samsung, LG and HTC still waiting.
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AT&T’s Nexus 6 stock reportedly being sent back due to software bug (update)

Mark Hearn Nov 21 2014 - 9:15 am PT

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nexus-6-side-view

AT&T retail stores are reportedly being told to send back their first shipments of Google’s Nexus 6 due to a software bug identified by Motorola. The noted issues with this glitch are a blacked out screen and trouble connecting to the carrier’s service. Motorola Mobility is said to be working on restocking Ma Bell’s inventory with replacement devices, however this will likely have an impact on the handset’s availability.

Upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 4 to sport fingerprint tech from Galaxy S5, ship with new software features

Stephen Hall Aug 25 2014 - 4:34 pm PT

SAMSUNG

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is expected to be unveiled next week at IFA 2014 in Berlin, but as we inch closer to its official unveiling, more and more details continue to surface. Today, we’re hearing (via SamMobile) that the device will sport Synaptics’ Natural ID, which happens to be the same technology found on the Galaxy S5 and expected to be part of the Galaxy Alpha. Not only that, but the Note 4 will apparently also ship with some new software features as well.

Upcoming XE 20.1 Google Glass update brings major improvements to contacts and messaging, more

Stephen Hall Aug 20 2014 - 3:23 pm PT

Google is getting ready to push out the latest update for Google Glass—numbered XE 20.1—and with it is coming some pretty major changes to how contacts are handled, notably allowing users to access all contacts by voice via Google Contacts. Also included in this update is the ability to actually choose which method you would like to use when sending a contact a message—Hangouts, email, or SMS.

Your entire phone address book is now available on Glass thanks to Google Contacts. You can access 20 of your most recent and starred contacts by voice and the rest are just a swipe away. Starring a contact is really easy. Just find them in your phone and click the star. If the star is filled in, then the contact has been favorited.